Keeping my family healthy, keeping my family happy

Baked Falafel

We love eating different cuisines but we aren’t big on going out to eat. I am slowly trying out different cuisines besides American, Italian, Mexican, and Chinese. Greek is my new favorite, and falafel is the main reason why!

We have been eating hummus for a few years now. I make big batches of beans in the crockpot instead of using canned. I freeze the remaining portions and take them out as needed to make quick easy meals. One of those meals is this falafel! Its great as a side dish alongside greek marinated meat and tzatziki sauce or stuffed into a pita with some cucumber and feta.

We had only ever had falafel from a restaurant and its of course fried. This version is much healthier since I get a nice crust on the stove first using a little olive oil, but then finish it off in the oven.

Falafel recipe

serves 4

3 green onions, diced

2 cups garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (or 1 Tbs dry)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons whole wheat flour

1 egg, beaten

2 teaspoons olive oil

Mix all ingredients together besides olive oil. Mash well with a potato masher, pastry cutter, or pulse in food processor. You wanted it roughly mashed but a few chunks left in there.

Heat olive oil over medium high heat. Form into tablespoon sized balls with your hands, squeezing tightly so they don’t fall apart, or larger patties. Place in the olive oil and brown all sides.

Move to a silpat baking sheet and bake in the oven at 400 for 10-15 minutes.

I keep a can of organic green beans and organic corn each in my pantry for emergencies but other than that we don’t either. My mom and I actually canned a ton of tomatoes out of her garden last year in mason jars that we are still using and we always puree our own pumpkin around Halloween and freeze it. I started buying tuna out of the pouches but a dad at Alyssa’s soccer team said he has a friend with a company that cans tuna and salmon (in glass jars) and its incredible, I need to get the company name, he said you can order offline.